Lady April 27, 2016 Health & Wellness, Poetry

I Am Not Bipolar, I Have Bipolar

I am not bipolar.

I have bipolar.

I am not defined by my illness.

If you have cancer,

You are not a cancer.

Our illnesses do not determine who we are.

I am a combination of everyone I have ever met.

I have taken the good, the bad, the ugly,

and have used it in stride,

forming every molecule of my being.

I am not bipolar.

I have bipolar.

I am not my illness.

I am a storm with skin.

2Comments

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1

dyane on April 27, 2016 at 1:48 pm
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Your poem inspired me to share this catharsis, which is defined as “discharge of pent-up emotions so as to result in the alleviation of symptoms or the permanent relief of the condition.”

What is my “condition”?

Frustration at being depicted by a two or three-word-long sentence as my complete identity.

“I’m bipolar.”
“I am bipolar.”

Robert Frost stated, ““In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”

Three words can be powerful. Words are more influential in life’s smaller moments than we realize. Three teensy words.

“I love you.”

I can’t sum up myself in three words by saying “I am bipolar”, yet I honestly think that other people view me as bipolar first, everything else second when I tell them that I *am* my diagnosis.

I would go so far as to assert that we subliminally affect ourselves in some way with this language style, and it’s not a positive, healthy habit.

It’s also not a big deal to change this pattern. I’m talking one word: “have” instead of “am”. It’s no big deal to make the switch. I think you may agree! 😉

To be honest, I never cared about the simple phrase “I am bipolar”before I was diagnosed with it. However, now I am very careful when I tell others about myself and this condition. I make it a point to state “I have bipolar.” As an author, words are so important to me. There is so much more to me than bipolar disorder, and it makes me feel better to take charge in how I explain it to others.

Words have energy. One word can ripple the waves of your life. Drop an f-bomb around your kids, or at your partner, and you know what I mean!

Thank you for being a voice of reason in your moving, beautiful poem. We are most definitely not our illnesses. Once I fully accepted that (it took me almost a decade to do it) then my life got 100% better and I started achieving dreams I had since I was a child.
2

neuravinci on January 26, 2017 at 4:27 pm
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“I am a storm with skin” is probably one of the most beautiful lines I have ever read.

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I am not bipolar.

I have bipolar.

I am not defined by my illness.

If you have cancer,

You are not a cancer.

Our illnesses do not determine who we are.

I am a combination of everyone I have ever met.

I have taken the good, the bad, the ugly,

and have used it in stride,

forming every molecule of my being.

I am not bipolar.

I have bipolar.

I am not my illness.

I am a storm with skin.

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